Bill Text: NY A04510 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relates to the Incarcerated Individuals Responsibility and Fair Wages Act; establishes a minimum wage for incarcerated individuals of five dollars per hour; establishes a prison incarcerated individual fund where up to forty percent of an incarcerated individual's wages can be sent to his or her family to help pay for certain expenses.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - referred to correction [A04510 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A04510-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          4510

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 16, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. HYNDMAN -- read once and referred to the Commit-
          tee on Correction

        AN ACT to amend the  correction  law  and  the  state  finance  law,  in
          relation to the Incarcerated Individuals Responsibility and Fair Wages
          Act

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the  "Incarcer-
     2  ated Individuals Responsibility and Fair Wages Act".
     3    § 2. Subdivision 3 of section 170 of the correction law, as amended by
     4  chapter 322 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as follows:
     5    3.  Notwithstanding  any other provision of law, an incarcerated indi-
     6  vidual may be permitted to leave the institution under guard  to  volun-
     7  tarily perform work for a nonprofit organization.  An incarcerated indi-
     8  vidual who volunteers to perform work for a nonprofit organization shall
     9  be  paid  a  minimum  wage  of  five dollars per hour. The department is
    10  authorized to charge the nonprofit organization a reasonable hourly rate
    11  for meals and housing of any volunteering prisoners, if  applicable.  As
    12  used  in this section, the term "nonprofit organization" means an organ-
    13  ization operated exclusively for religious, charitable,  or  educational
    14  purposes,  no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of
    15  any private shareholder or individual.
    16    § 3. Section 171 of the correction law is  amended  by  adding  a  new
    17  subdivision 3 to read as follows:
    18    3.  An  incarcerated  individual  shall be paid a minimum wage of five
    19  dollars per hour for any labor performed.
    20    § 4. Subdivision 7 of section 177 of the correction law, as renumbered
    21  by chapter 256 of the laws of 2010, is renumbered subdivision  8  and  a
    22  new subdivision 7 is added to read as follows:
    23    7.  An  incarcerated  individual  shall be paid a minimum wage of five
    24  dollars per hour for any labor performed.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD06426-01-3
        A. 4510                             2

     1    § 5. Section 178 of the correction law, as amended by chapter  322  of
     2  the laws of 2021, is amended to read as follows:
     3    §  178.  Participation in work release and other community activities.
     4  Nothing contained in this article shall be construed or applied so as to
     5  prohibit private employment of incarcerated individuals in the community
     6  under a work  release  program,  or  a  residential  treatment  facility
     7  program formulated pursuant to any provision of this chapter.  An incar-
     8  cerated individual participating in a work release program or a residen-
     9  tial  treatment  facility  program  shall be paid a minimum wage of five
    10  dollars per hour.
    11    § 6. Section 184 of the correction law is  amended  by  adding  a  new
    12  subdivision 3 to read as follows:
    13    3.  An  incarcerated  individual who performs work as it is related to
    14  the manufacturing and preparing of any article or material at the direc-
    15  tion of the department shall be paid a minimum wage of five dollars  per
    16  hour.
    17    §  7.  Section  186  of  the correction law is amended by adding a new
    18  subdivision 5 to read as follows:
    19    5. An incarcerated individual who performs any service or manufactures
    20  any article or material shall be paid a minimum wage of five dollars per
    21  hour.
    22    § 8. Section 187 of the correction law is amended by  adding  two  new
    23  subdivisions 5 and 6 to read as follows:
    24    5.  Any  compensation  paid  to  an incarcerated individual under this
    25  article shall be in an amount greater than or equal to five  dollars  an
    26  hour  for work performed or work for which a wage is paid including, but
    27  not limited to, any task assigned  to  an  incarcerated  individual  for
    28  which  a  wage  would  have  been due except for his or her status as an
    29  incarcerated individual.
    30    6. Up to forty percent of any hourly compensation paid to an incarcer-
    31  ated individual may be deposited into the prison incarcerated individual
    32  fund established under section ninety-nine-qq of the state finance law.
    33    § 9. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 99-qq to
    34  read as follows:
    35    § 99-qq. Prison incarcerated individual fund.    1.  There  is  hereby
    36  established  in  the  joint  custody  of  the  state comptroller and the
    37  department of corrections and community supervision a special fund to be
    38  known as the "prison incarcerated individual fund".
    39    2. The prison incarcerated individual fund shall consist  of  monetary
    40  grants,  gifts or bequests received by the state for the purposes of the
    41  fund, and all other moneys credited  or  transferred  thereto  from  any
    42  other  fund  or  source.  Moneys of such fund shall be expended only for
    43  supporting  prison  incarcerated  individuals'  families  with  expenses
    44  including,  but not limited to, daycare, child support, rent and medical
    45  expenses. The amount of moneys a prison incarcerated individual's family
    46  receives for such expenses shall be greater than or equal to the  amount
    47  of  money contributed to the fund from such prison incarcerated individ-
    48  ual's compensation under subdivision six of section one hundred  eighty-
    49  seven  of the correction law.  Nothing in this section shall prevent the
    50  state from soliciting and receiving grants, gifts or  bequests  for  the
    51  purposes  of  such  fund  and depositing them into the fund according to
    52  law.
    53    3. Moneys in such fund shall be kept separate from and  shall  not  be
    54  commingled  with  any  other moneys in the custody of the comptroller or
    55  the department of corrections and community supervision. Any  moneys  of
    56  the  fund  not  required for immediate use may, at the discretion of the
        A. 4510                             3

     1  comptroller, in consultation with  the  department  of  corrections  and
     2  community  supervision, be invested by the comptroller in obligations of
     3  the United States or the state, or  in  obligations  the  principal  and
     4  interest  on  which are guaranteed by the United States or by the state.
     5  Any income earned by the investment of such moneys shall be added to and
     6  become a part of, and shall be used for the purposes of such fund.
     7    § 10. This act shall take effect on  the  one  hundred  eightieth  day
     8  after it shall have become a law.